Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a fighting game for the Nintendo Wii. It is the third entry in the Super Smash Bros. series, following Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64 and Super Smash Bros. Melee on the Nintendo GameCube. It was released on January 31, 2008 in Japan and in North America on March 9 of that same year. Inclusion of Solid Snake Many gamers were surprised when the trailer for the game announced that Solid Snake would be a playable character; previous games in the series had never featured third party characters, and up to that point, only four games in the series (Metal Gear, Snake's Revenge, Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes) had been released on Nintendo systems in nearly twenty years, with the series rarely leaving Sony consoles since 1998's Metal Gear Solid. In addition, the fact that the series contrasted with the bright atmosphere usually presented in the universe of Nintendo (games made by Nintendo have been geared toward a wider audience as opposed to the Metal Gear games, which are usually given mature ratings) also loaned surprise to the announcement. Kojima's interest in the Super Smash Bros. series According to numerous sources, Hideo Kojima was a fan of the original N64 Super Smash Bros. When the GameCube sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee was in development, Kojima had called Masahiro Sakurai and asked for Solid Snake to be included in the game. However, the game was at that point too far in development to allow another character to appear in the game. Instead, Solid Snake was able to be included seven years later in the Wii incarnation, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Solid Snake's moves Snake does not use his trademark SOCOM or M4 Custom in the game, but instead use explosives and CQC for fighting. His weapons include grenades, a Nikita, a Cypher, a proximity mine, C4, a mortar, an RPG-7, land mines, and an RGB-6. Snake's smash attacks are not only very powerful compared to the other characters, but also have a large hit box and all involve some type of ordnance. His in-game taunt is crouching down and putting on his signature cardboard box. Though it appears that he has only one taunt as opposed to each of the other characters' three, Snake actually puts on the box in three different ways. The box can be tossed off (and hit opponents for little damage), or pulled off of Snake by opponents and thrown at him. On the Shadow Moses Island stage, he can also use a hidden easter egg where he will call Campbell, Mei Ling, or Otacon for information on his opponents. Shadow Moses Island Snake's home stage is Shadow Moses Island, where Metal Gear REX, Metal Gear RAY, and a group of GEKKO can be seen at times. Spotlights move across the stage which, if they spot a character, will cause an exclamation mark to appear over their head and follow them across the stage. The searchlight towers on either side can be destroyed, expanding the stage, but will reappear after time. If Snake is being used on this stage, he can use a secret taunt to contact his support team (Colonel Campbell, GW Colonel Campbell, Otacon, or Mei Ling and, in one case, Slippy Toad from the Star Fox series) via Codec to get information about a specific fighter in the field. The taunt is performed by pressing the taunt button for a split second. Gray Fox Gray Fox also appears as an Assist Trophy in the game. When called out, he assists whoever summoned him by randomly attacking an opponent and reflecting projectiles. If Snake is one of the combatants, the two will share dialogue. The Subspace Emissary In the Subspace Emissary, the story mode of the game, Snake stows away aboard the villain-controlled battleship Halberd, hidden beneath his cardboard box. Eventually, he emerges from beneath the box and begins moving towards the cockpit of the ship, but upon seeing Meta Knight and Lucario approaching, he hides beneath his box once more. Lucario, however, notices the box and uses his Aura powers to see Snake hiding beneath it. Lucario removes the box, surprising Snake (complete with the trademark Exclamation Mark) and forcing him into a fighting stance. Meta Knight is happy to oblige, but Lucario stops him, sensing enemy Primids approaching, and signals for Snake to help them. Eventually, the trio reach the holding room where the trophies of Princess Peach and Princess Zelda are being held just in time to see Shadow Bugs take on their forms. The heroes defeat the fake princesses and restore Peach and Zelda before moving on. After a short period, they reach the cockpit of the ship wherein they find several Mr. Game & Watches controlling it. Snake rushes in and knocks all the Game & Watches out the window, where they revert to Shadow Bugs that proceed to morph into the colossal enemy Duon. Snake, alongside Lucario, Peach, Zelda transformed into Sheik, Fox McCloud, and Falco Lombardi defeat the monster and free the possessed Mr. Game & Watch within. After this point, Snake's role decreases significantly, but he is among the heroes who are turned back to trophies by Tabuu then revived for the final battle. Events In the Events game section, Snake is not only among the newcomers but also among the final three heroes in the event's Stage 41, along with Sonic the Hedgehog and a giant Mario; the player must fight all three of them to finish all events. He is also the playable character in the Event Match 36: High-Tech Special Forces, where he must defeat Samus, Captain Falcon and Wolf. Music The following songs were used for the Shadow Moses Island stage in Brawl: *Encounter (Brawl Remix, original version appeared in Metal Gear Solid); *Theme of Tara (Brawl Remix, original version appeared in Metal Gear); *Yell "Dead Cell" (taken from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty); *Snake Eater (Instrumental) (original version appeared in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater); *Theme of Love (Brawl Remix, original version appeared in Metal Gear Solid 4); *Cavern (originally from Metal Gear Solid); *Battle in the Base (originally from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater); *Theme of Solid Snake (originally from Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake); *Calling to the Night (originally from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops); The tracks "Yell "Dead Cell", "Cavern", "Battle in the Base", "Theme of Solid Snake" and "Calling to the Night" appear in their original versions, whereas all of the other tracks except for Snake Eater have been specially remixed for Brawl; Snake Eater appears in an instrumental version, previously used in MGS3 but never released commercially. Trophies and Stickers Several Metal Gear characters, items, and Metal Gears themselves appear as trophies or stickers in the game. Trophies *Solid Snake *Grenade Launcher *Gray Fox *Iroquois Pliskin *Naked Snake *Shagohod *Metal Gear REX *Metal Gear RAY *Gekko *Cypher *Cardboard Box Stickers *Big Boss (MGS1 art) *Colonel (MGS2 art) *EVA *Gray Fox *Liquid Snake *Master Miller *Mei Ling *Meryl Silverburgh (MGS1 version) *Metal Gear RAY *Metal Gear REX *Naked Snake *Naomi Hunter (MGS1 version) *Otacon (MGS2 art) *Raiden (MGS2 art) *Revolver Ocelot (MGS2 art) *Shagohod *Solid Snake (MGS1 art) *Solid Snake (MGS2 art) *The Boss Trivia *Hideo Kojima fought Masahiro Sakurai as Snake while Sakurai was Mario at Sakurai's Tokyo office. *If Snake uses his codec while fighting Falco Lombardi on Shadow Moses Island, he will be contacted by Slippy Toad, a member of Team Star Fox. *If Snake is KO'd while in a Codec conversation, the character he was talking to mimics the traditional game over message of "Snake? SNAAAAAAAAAAKE!". *Snake can contact Campbell while fighting Luigi on Shadow Moses, who immediately begins ripping down Luigi, saying that "he's been living in his brother's shadow," among other unusually aggressive things. Snake rebukes the Colonel for his harsh words, then the Colonel starts saying "la li lu le lo" over and over again. To this, Snake replies, "Colonel, snap out of it! Colonel!! Coooooooloneeeeeel!" Snake had really been talking to the Colonel AI during that Codec conversation. *If you hit an opponent with the remote-controlled missile, Snake will do a quick fist pump as if to say "Yes!". On the other hand, if you miss, Snake will do a quick pose to show his disappointment. *Snake's C4 can be placed on walls as well as opponents. As with Gooey Bombs, occasionally the explosive will transfer to a new carrier if one brushes against it. *Approximately one out of every 6 C4 packs Snake uses will be a C3 butterfly explosive, a reference to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. This change is purely cosmetic. *Snake is unique in that he is the only character who will will utter (one of several) lines when he eats food. He usually says something along the lines of "Nom!", other times he will say "Tasty!" and rarely "Good!" (this is a parody of when the player eats food from their inventory in Snake Eater). *The audience's in-game cheer for Snake parodies the MGS game over screen. (I.E. "Snake! Snake! SNAAAAAAAAKE!!!") *Footage of Snake battling Mr. Game and Watch on Shadow Moses Island was featured in the MGS4 "Revived" trailer. *Snake enters a battle arena in an identical way to how he first lands on the Tanker at the start of Metal Gear Solid 2. *At the beginning of each match, Snake will say "Kept you waiting, huh?", which is a recurring phrase in the Metal Gear series. Snake also says this line when he appears in the Subspace Emissary, which is one of very few lines in the entire story. *EVA's sticker grants Snake a large amount of electrical resistance, a reference to her undercover relationship with Volgin in Snake Eater. *It is hinted in his codec conversations with Otacon and Mei Ling that Snake has a crush on Samus Aran, of the Metroid series. *The Metal Gear Solid Main Theme was supposed to be in Brawl, but was excluded due to alleged plagiarism. *As Brawl was released a few months before MSG4, GEKKO and the "Theme of Love" both pre-dated their source material. Also noteworthy is that, in the developer's blog, on Oct. 2 of 2007, it was hinted in this post that there would be a "new model" of Metal Gear included in the Shadow Moses stage, about a year before MGS4 was released. *Metal Gear Solid 3 camos (tiger stripe, auscam, animal, water, and fire) appear as snakes alternate costumes. References Gallery File:Snakebrawlpresent.jpg|Snake's model File:Super Smash Solid Snake.jpg|Solid Snake's prototype model. File:Snake SSBB1.jpg|Snake using a mortar. File:Snake SSBB2.jpg|Snake burying a mine. File:Snake SSBB3.jpg|Snake firing his Nikita. File:Snake SSBB4.jpg|Snake using a remote controlled missile. File:Snake SSBB5.jpg|Snake about to throw a grenade. File:Snake SSBB6.jpg|Snake using a Cypher. File:Snake SSBB7.jpg|Snake using his Final Smash "Grenade Launcher". File:Shadow Moses Island1.jpg|Shadow Moses Island, as it appears in the game. File:Shadow Moses Island2.jpg|Metal Gear REX appears. File:Shadow Moses Island3.jpg|Metal Gear RAY appears. External links *Snake's page at Smash Bros. DOJO!! *Gray Fox's page at Smash Bros. DOJO!! *Shadow Moses Island's page at Smash Bros. DOJO!! *List of Codec conversations at the Super Smash Bros. Wiki *Codec conversations in YouTube Category:Games Category:Music